Russian ex-servicemen sentenced for stealing MiG parts

Moscow, June 20 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Two former servicemen from a Russian city of Rostov-on-Don have been sentenced to three years in a penal colony for stealing navigation gears from MiG-29 fighter aircraft.

Penal colony is a settlement used for exiling prisoners and separating them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory.

The duo — Yuri Shcherabakov and Igor Solokhin — were caught red-handed at the crime site in 2011. They were trying to escape in a car but crashed into a truck.

Police found three altitude and heading reference systems in their car, each with an estimated value of 3 million rubles (about $92,000). Investigators claimed the thieves were planning to sell these to unidentified people.